Today I made marshmallows. Yeah, like from scratch. The secret is, while time consuming, they’re really not all that difficult to make.
The recipe was in the July edition of Bon Appetit and can be found online here as well. The pictures in the magazine looked awfully pretty in that rustic, homemade kind of way and the preparation sounded straightforward enough, so I had a go at them. Here are a few of the things I learned today: 1. I always think I don’t have gelatin, then buy gelatin only to find out once I get home from the store and put the groceries away that I do, in fact, have gelatin sitting in the cabinet (the one I purchased this weekend was box number three in the cupboard). 2. After whipping the marshmallow mixture for what feels like a million years, expect to find bright white globules of marshmallow everywhere. I found it on my arms, my forehead, the wall behind where I was mixing, the window. I expect to find more of it throughout the rest of the week. 3. Cutting and powdering marshmallows takes time, and an absolute mess will be made. This is one task that simply cannot be rushed or the mess will only grow.
Lessons learned aside, the marshmallows turned out really nicely. My husband took a few lovely photos as well (I think it was a pleasant change of pace
for him, taking photos of something that wasn’t cooling off and becoming increasingly less palatable the longer he stood around taking pictures). Now the only issue left is figuring out what to do with all these marshmallows! We doled a few of them out to friends here and there. I intend to foist some on my ex-coworkers tomorrow. After that, we’ll just have to play it by ear. There are just soooo many marshmallows! Maybe some hot chocolate to dump them in. Perhaps some s'mores? I am having an idea for making a graham cracker crusted tart with a rich chocolate filling and a marshmallow topping. Maybe I’ll briefly broil it so the top looks kinda browned and s'more-like. Who am I kidding - these will be gone well before anything that elaborate happens.